Special Celebration

We were so happy our grandmother's 88th birthday was celebrated at this special venue - Hotel Bellevedere. It is not only the place we used to go for nice onsen/hot spring but also the place Matthew and I did our 2nd wedding ceremony (we got married in Barbados) 8 years ago. I was just looking up the hotel website to see if they had any nice photos to show you what our wedding was like then I found this!



We were on their website!! I didn't know until today...

Anyway this is one of our favourite places we have been in Japan. We just missed the cherry blossoms blooming but they were still very beautiful. We had a few hours before we had to sit down for the dinner party so we walked around the hotel and enjoyed a warm afternoon.



Beautiful Pacific Ocean:



Having this wonderful view in front we enjoyed a foot bath:





Kids loved the hammock:







Just me and my Matthew:



We were in full swing inside the hotel too, playing pool and table tennis :)











Finally grandma arrived - the age difference between her and Rua is 88 years!! Amazing!!



We had to make sure we went and sat in the onsen as many times as possible while we were there (my family loves onsen so much!) so we made sure we had one before and after dinner. You are not supposed to take any photos (as you can imagine) so I can only show you these photos I borrowed from the hotel website.

Infinity bath overlooking the Pacific Ocean:



Fresh rose petal bath:



I could have stayed in the bath forever and ever but it was time for the special celebration! 88th birthday celebration is called "Beiju" and when celebrating beiju in traditional style, the birthday person wears a cap (zukin) and a vest (chanchanko) and sits on a cushion (zabuton) all the color of gold. Some of our cousins couldn't make it but we had a good number of relatives together.



We had a delicious course meal and lots of nice Japanese beer!





Rui wrote a nice letter to great grandma:



Me and grandma:



Luca and grandma:





Hinata, Oliver and Rui:



Grandma in her beiju outfit with my mother and her sister:



With Mako:



It was such a great get together. We haven't seen grandma over 2 years. I cannot believe how healthy she is. We enjoyed many old jokes from our uncle and catching up with some of the cousins we haven't seen in years - all about the fun times we had at grandma's place over the years.



We all exist because of our wonderful grandma. We love you so much!!

At a highway service station

We were all excited and hopped into our cars (all 15 of the Miyakuni family) and headed out to Wakayama to attend our grandmother's 88th birthday celebration.

Since we were little we visited her house every holiday but now that she moved to Nagoya we haven't done a big family holiday together in ages.

We stopped at a highway service area to get some drinks and lunch. Japanese highway stops are very commercialised, many souvenirs, lots of restaurants, coffee and bread shops etc so it is sort of a destination you always stop at.



Great view of Wakayama City:







Welcome signs - Hello kitty





Benkei version:

A brand new student

My oldest nephew has started Junior High School (year 7-9). I cannot believe he has grown so much. Now he is taller than me...

Mountain walk

Even though we are here without Matthew, we are lucky to spend some days with him when he flies into KIX (Kansai/Osaka) for work. This time he got an extra day off. The boys were so happy to have their daddy around.

He was flying with one of the captains we are friends with so all of us went up to the Inunaki mountain behind us (only 20min on the bus) to refresh.

Boys are always happy on the bus:





We love this nature walk and visiting the temple and waterfall at the end of it. It is not too hard but a good length to get decent exercise.



I am always impressed how well Oliver walks. He doesn't normally complain and can walk reasonably fast:



Very Japanese - quite beautiful:







Before we knew it we were at the temple. Oliver and Shem hit the gong three times wishing our heath and happiness. (The announcement told us if we hit more than 3 times our wish won't come true...)





High five to a little man:





Heading into the sanctuary area - we washed our hands and cleaned the Buddha with fresh mountain water:





More steps but Oliver never gave up!





Super fresh air and beautiful waterfall - Family photo time :)



It was slightly too early for cherry blossoms so we couldn't show Shem any which was a shame. But hopefully we can go back again in the summer time for a picnic and a little swim :)

Spring is here!

We had an unusually long winter (or cold Spring?) this year here in Japan. The temperature has been quite low even at the end of March. Coming from Singapore we found it extra cold. Luca especially had difficulty getting used to it.

But finally the warm spring weather has arrived. I just couldn't stay at home, had to go out and breathe in warm fresh air.

Runa (my niece) was still on school holidays so she came along to our park visits. The boys were so happy to be outside. Oliver couldn't stop giggling - he must have missed being warm and playing outside so much.

Can you feel the warm spring sun?





Luca:





Look I'm a monkey!







It was too nice to just go home after visiting one park so we walked to another park. We are very lucky where we live, we have 5 little parks within Oliver's walking distance.



Lovely flowers blooming :)



YES! It's not cold!



I hope the temperature will keep rising while we are here. I've had enough of being cold already!

Little bus driver

We were given a coupon for a free ride at the mall. Straight away Oliver and Yuzuki hopped onto a bus and drove away!

Beep beep!





He is a true boy, loves cars, buses, trains, boats and air planes!